[ramblenode]

The well-being literature does seem surprisingly fuzzy. I can only speculate what is going on there. A more robust finding seems to be grades:

"The effects of mobile phone use on academic performance: A meta-analysis" [0]

"Results indicate the summary effect of mobile phone use on student outcomes is r = −0.16 with 95% CI of −0.20 to −0.13."

[0] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03601...

[tootie]

Published just today: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/jan/29/all-in-...

Refers to a more recent meta analysis from 2023 of 12000 kids and basically found no substantial negative effects from screen time